


You Think I'm Beautiful?

by LivetoDream333 (orphan_account)



Series: Double-O Drabbles [33]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Female Q, Insecurity, James is sweet, Nature of Beauty, maybe ooc sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-07
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-02-28 11:43:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2731208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/LivetoDream333
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James never called Q beautiful...but hearing him call a mark beautiful brings all Q's insecurities back to the surface.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Think I'm Beautiful?

**Author's Note:**

> Meant to write about insecurities...ended up writing about myself and my life-no one to wash any insecurities away yet, but that's neither here nor there.  
> Make-up is gross along with all the other stuff (no offense to those of you who use it, I just don't see the point...at all)...and I can only hope that one day I find my James Bond (though, likely he'll be much less badass).

You Think I’m Beautiful?

 

James and Q had taken things slow. James didn’t want things to end badly, no, he wanted this to work. He’d found himself quite quickly in love with the snarky young woman he’d met in front of that bloody big ship. He wasn’t going to fuck it up by moving too quickly. That being said, their relationship had been good. Very good.

Q had even told James her name, which happened to be Willow.

Thing had been perfect until she had overheard something James had said to a mark. It wasn’t that he was with a mark, Q knew it was part of the job (though she was grateful that James found more subtle ways that straight up sex to get what he wanted), it was what was said to her. James had never called her that, and realizing that stung a bit.

James had called her Will (which had already been her old nickname in school), sweetheart—Willow’s personal favorite endearment—sweetie, darling, love, hun, honey, babe, baby, cute, cutie, adorable, sexy, pretty, radiant, brilliant, gorgeous… He’d called her many things, but never beautiful.

Q wasn’t the most confident of people. She’d been capable of having all sorts of friendships her whole life, but no one had ever had attraction to her, it led to a life without much love or affection, hugs, kisses…everything had been new to her with James. She hadn’t understood what James had seen in her. No one else in the world saw it, aside from one man with a sexual assault record back in uni, but Q’d broken his nose…and a few ribs…and maybe his right hand…it got the point across, regardless.

James was pretty much sex incarnate and everyone in the world—no matter what their normal preferences were—wanted him, that was simply a rule in the world.

Q had often wonder why in the hell James would even look her way. How could she capture his attention? Her hair was permanently pulled up in a messy ponytail because the wave in her hair allowed for nothing neater than that, her glasses were thick, one of her teeth were crooked, she was pale, too skinny, never wore nice clothes, never dressed up, never wore make-up, didn’t even have her ears pierced…most of the world wouldn’t consider her a ‘real woman’ when Q thought about it… She wasn’t curvy. She had a chest, but not like the very curved woman who had cleavage to spare and showed it.

She wasn’t beautiful…and it stung…she wasn’t even beautiful in the eyes of the one person in her life who’d ever cared about her.

The mark James had known for less than a day was beautiful…but when Q saw her she understood why. The mark was leggy, had elegant blonde curls, perfect curves, perfect teeth, ruby lips, smoky eyes, red high heels, an elegant black dress, perfectly curled eyelashes, manicured nails, a matching earing and necklace set, and nearly perfect symmetrical features…

Q turned off comms when she heard a beautiful voice and pulled out her earpiece, throwing it on her desk and cover her eyes. “Hello, sweetie. Do you have a headache?” Eve asked gently after seeing Q.

“I’m fine, just tired.” Q frowned.

“Need anything? I can go get you tea.” Eve smiled, putting a folder of paper on Q’s desk.

“No, thank you.” Q smiled back slightly.

“Alrighty, luv.” Eve grinned, heading for the door.

“Actually—”

“Hm?”

“How do you do your make-up?” Q asked shyly. Eve’s eyes lit up and she walked back in the room sitting down on the desk.

“Honest to goodness girl-talk out of you? I never thought I’d see the day!” Eve giggled before she started talking like a crazy person and triple speed. It was a whirlwind of information and Q could hardly grasp any of it…she was sure Eve hadn’t taken a single breath through the whole ordeal. “—don’t worry we can go shopping, but you have to tell me who the guy is and—shit, I’m supposed to be upstairs. Hey, we’ll talk alright? We can go shopping when you get out, kay? Alright, it’s a date. See you!” Eve whirled out of the room and Q stared after her.

Maybe—for once—she could be beautiful for someone.

Q didn’t want to lose James…especially if there was something she could do to get him to like her more.

800Q8

When James arrived at MI6, Q wasn’t there to greet him, which meant she was probably at home taking a nap or working on something whilst their cat Blake made a home near her feet. James couldn’t help but smile at the thought. The few nurses in medical were very concerned with how calm and cooperative James was, and the minions were surprised at how well the tech had come back. James just wanted to go home as quickly as possible.

James was never more relieved than when he entered the flat. Instantly he felt Blake twisting around his legs. “Hey, girly.” James smiled, rubbing the cat’s head gently. “Sweetheart, I’m home.” James called out, trying to get into the living room without stepping on the cat, who didn’t have a concept of ‘leg room’…at all. James sat down on the sofa, smelling food cooking. He heard Q and smiled, turning just in time to press his lips to her’s. There was something off about the texture of her lips, but he didn’t much care as he pulled her down into his lap, tangling a hand in her and just being happy to live in the single moment with just himself and Q. “Well, hello to you too, love.” James chuckled pulling away and opening his eyes, cupping her face in his hands.

“Glad to see you came home without a scratch this time.” Q smiled. James didn’t move. Q was…different. James gently ran his thumb over her bottom lip.

“Is that…lipstick?”

“Yeah…” Q said shyly, shifting slightly in his lap. She looked different. Normally when James came home it was to Q in PJ’s (PJ’s actually consisted of a pair of shorts and whichever of James’ shirts she could reach) and fuzzy socks. Her hair was typically waving down her back and her glasses were typically crooked. Q didn’t look like that now. Her hair was straightened, her face done-up in make-up (tastefully, of course…but even just a touch of make-up looked strange on her, since she never normally wore any), her clothes were dressy and a tad more revealing than normal, and her nails were painted red. It wasn’t a bad sight, James would never say that…but it was strange and very far from normal.

“I thought you were against make-up.” James commented after a moment, still stroking her lower lip gently. Her cheeks warmed under his hands at his study of her.

“Yeah well, trying something new.” She shrugged.

“You look good, sweetheart.” James assured her, placing a gentle kiss to her lips. Q couldn’t help but feel a bit deflated.

“Thank you, James.” Q forced a smile. “Dinner’s almost done, I’ll be back.”

“Alright, besides I think Blake is begging for attention.”

“She does that.” Q shrugged before walking out of the room. Blake hopped up onto the couch and climbed onto James lap before putting both her paws on James’ chest and butting her forehead against James’ chin.

“She a bit strange to you?” James asked quietly. Blake blinked at him before rubbing her head against his neck, purring. “I thought so.” James sighed, rubbing behind her ears gently.

800Q8

The strangeness became far too much when James managed to slip the shirt and skirt off of Q. James—being who he was—knew every single item Q owned and wore. The red and black laced bra was new. That was one thing Q did have a girly-er attitude about, she always bought nicer bras, but never the lace ones and normally just in solid colors. The real problem came when the skirt came off to reveal a matching set. Q never matched. It was one of the things James found so endearing and loved about her so much. She was herself and not out to impress anyone… Everything about her was out of character. She hated make-up, thought skirts were impractical, hated showing off cleavage, thought nail polish was only meant to be chipped in her work, never flat ironed her hair, never wore heels… Something was very off.

“Hey, hey, hey…stop for a moment.” James said, slowly pulling away from Q, managing to keep his lips off of hers for a moment.

“What is it?” Q asked, breathless.

“Are you alright?”

“Wha—? What do you mean?”

“Will, you’re not yourself. Is there something wrong?”

“We’re doing this now?” Q asked with wide eyes, shifting slightly uncomfortably on James’ lap.

“Yes, we are…because I’m worried about you. There are a million things wrong with…how you’re acting. I just need to make sure you’re alright.”

“I’m fine.” Q said.

“No you’re not… Tell me?”

“James…” Q bit her lip and climbed off James’ lap, folding her hands in her lap, shifting uncomfortably.

“Sweetheart…what’s wrong?” James asked, tucking her hair behind her ear. Q looked down at her hands. “Hey, you can tell me…”

“It was something you said to the mark…” Q stopped talking and James just kept looking at her, waiting.

“Will?” He nudged gently. “Willow?”

“I’m not pretty. I don’t act like a woman should. I don’t wear make-up and I don’t try to look pretty, I don’t like going shopping, or spending hours getting pretty, I think it’s pointless and just objectifies people and… I don’t have a good self-esteem I never have. I mean, no one’s ever taken even the slightest interest in me, ever, and then there’s you and you’re perfect and everyone wants you and I don’t know why you’d stoop to someone like me… And you’re always so sweet to me, but…but you called her beautiful and…you’ve never called me that before. I just thought I was doing something wrong, you know? I don’t know how to be beautiful, but I do all this and…still not beautiful.”

“Oh, love…” James sighed. “Come here.” He didn’t wait for her to move. He scooped her into his arms and stood up, her legs instinctively wrapped around him and she buried her face against his chest. If she was trying to hide her tears, the moister that landed on James’ skin gave her away. There was a rustling sound for a moment before he carried her into the bathroom, setting her down on the counter. “Hey…” James said gently, pulling her chin up as he pulled away from her. “Let me clear some things up for you alright?” He asked setting something down on the counter. He gently reached for a rag and soaked it in water before he began to gently wash the make-up from her face. “The first time I saw you, I thought you were radiant. You have the smoothest, most perfect skin I’ve ever seen.”

“You said I had spots.”

“You gotta admit, you look like a kid. Close your eyes.” He whispered before gently wiping away the eye shadow and other things Q had managed to jam unnaturally on her eyelids. “You have the fullest lips and the prettiest green eyes. Had I not been waiting for my Quartermaster I would have attempted to sweep you off your feet and have you in the nearest closet.” James smiled. “Then you ensnared me with your sharp and brilliant wit. You won me over with your sweet, gentle heart, such a rare thing to have in my world. You made me fall apart with that cute little dimple you get in your cheek when you’re genuinely amused.” He said, starting to clean the other eyelid. “Then when I had you for the first time, you were so incredibly adorable, so shy and perfect with your purple bra with your black and green boy shorts—oh yes, I still remember that. You were absolutely perfect and shy in such a lovely endearing way.” James said, finishing her other eye, trying to get rid of her lipstick next. “You were absolutely sexy once you started getting confident in bed, tiger.” James grinned before pulling her hair up into a near-identical messy pony tail to the ones Q usually did.

“Not beautiful though…”

“No…not beautiful, and there’s a reason for that. You are absolutely beautiful, never doubt that.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” Q asked shyly.

“Immeasurably so, Will, but I hate that word. Every woman in the world craves that word, so for years I’ve been whispering it into the ears of marks. Into the ears of woman who fake their beauty, knowing full well what they're trying to sell when they decide to change themselves.” James said, reaching around to unclasp Q’s bra, not letting his eyes stray from hers. “They put on make-up and fancy clothes and try to make themselves into the prettiest objects in the room. You are so different… A true beauty. You don’t cover the natural beauty you have, you let it stand as it is. I don’t know how such a perfect angel could be so self-conscious, so insecure…you truly are perfect. I don’t call you beautiful because I’ve associated it with lies…no…you’re so much more than all the others.” James promised, taking her bra off before putting another on in its place. Purple rather than red, finally mismatched. “I like this you better…and I’m sorry I haven’t told you that enough. I’ll make sure to do better.” James smiled, gently kissing her forehead. “I love you like this. I don’t want you to ever compare yourself to what the world thinks is beautiful. I much prefer my adorable, sweet, pretty, cute, sexy, perfect little angel. All that fake beauty can keep pretending alright?”

“So I don’t have to wear heels again?”

“Never.”

“Good, because they actually disfigure feet terribly and make-up is awful for the skin and lipstick is so annoying, and do you know how awful it is always worrying that your chest is going to fall out of your shirt?”

“That’s my girl.” James beamed, kissing her senseless. Q wrapped her arms and legs around him, pulling him close. “We’re going to work on your self-esteem alright?”

“Okay…” Q nodded against his shoulder.

“I think the best place for us to start is by me thoroughly worshiping you like the goddess you are. Sound like a plan to you?”

Q couldn’t help but laugh and nod, gluing herself to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Much Love.


End file.
